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Hello First name / friend,

 

Happy Thursday!  I hope you are having a great week!  It's been a rainy week here but but I think everyone is loving it after over a month straight with no rain. 

 

Thank you so much for being here and allowing me to take up some space in your inbox.  It sounded really daunting when I decided to start weekly newsletters but it's been a great way to stay focused on projects so I can share them with you :)

 

This has kind of turned more into a quilting journal where I can put everything from the past week in one spot.  It's somewhat replaced my blog since it's easier to quickly share finished quilts here rather than waiting until I get around to doing a blog post about it.

So first up this week, I want to talk about PIN BASTING!   I have always struggled with pin basting and preferred spray basting because I could get much better results.  The fabric on my pin basted quilts was always way looser than I liked after quilting.

 

Well, I ran out of spray baste recently so I decided now is the time to get this pin basting thing figured out.  I think it was a combo of that and the fact that spray basting wasn't working on my hand quilting projects since there was so much handling.  

 

So I've really been trying this pin basting thing again and guess what… I think it's working out! 

 

I have been trying to pin baste the same way I spray baste and that was by taping down the backing.  I'm finding that doesn't work as well with pins so I've been ditching the tape and instead doing lots of smoothing and flipping.  

 

I made two reels over on Instagram showing this in action. 

Lucky Log Cabins quilt pattern.  

And the best part about skipping the tape is that you can baste on a counter or table!  Oh my gosh, that is so much easier than crawling on the floor..lol.  

Backing is Ruby Star Society Speckled fabric.

I use an 80/20 cotton/poly batting and the fabrics stick to it pretty well.  I'm guessing the higher the cotton content, the “stickier” it will be.  

 

And then once it's all smooth and flat you can start adding pins.  I start in the middle and work toward the edges.  And again, you can do this standing!  Maybe you have already figured this out but this is my first time basting at a counter and it feels like a game changer..lol. 

I just wanted to share what seems to be working better for me and maybe you can try it too if you also struggle with getting good pin basting results.

I'll share the quilting process next week!  I'm not quite done with this one but this cool triangle design is super easy to do with all straight lines. 

I juuust finished up these Double the Plus quilt tops!  I'm currently trying to figure out how to align them perfectly and get them basted for hand quilting.

Fableism Sprout Wovens in Sugar + Pepper

I purposely chose these Sprout wovens for this quilt because I want to hand quilt it and they end up being so enjoyable to hand quilt.  But… since they are not quite as stiff as other fabrics it's adding an extra challenge of getting them to line up nicely.  

 

I'm thinking a mix of spray baste + pins might do the trick.  The spray baste will help me place them better and then the pins to keep it all together in the long run.  

The last thing I've been working on this past week is my Scrap Stash Log Cabin Stars quilt.  This week during the QAL we are making the star blocks.  I'm liking the gradient of color that these are making :)  

FEATURED QUILT PATTERN

The featured pattern this week is Diamond Lanterns!  Diamond Lanterns is a block based pre-cut friendly quilt.  The block starts with a square in a square unit.  Those can be fun to make. 

I've only sewn up a couple Diamond Lanterns quilts.  This more recent one uses my Quilty Love Palette Picks bundle for Robert Kaufman.

The original Diamond Lanterns quilt from quite a few years ago is made using Tilda fabrics.  This is the only time I've sewn with Tilda but it sure is pretty.  It has a vintage feel to it.  Some of their lines are brighter but others like this one have a similar feel to the one below.

I did a few mock ups of this one since I don't have a lot of samples to show.  If you use fat quarters, then one fat quarter makes two blocks but if you use fat eighths then each block is a different fabric. 

Fabrics are Ruby Star Society Flowerland

Both quilts above are Ruby Star Society original Warp and Weft Wovens - these are getting to be out of print and harder to find.

Ruby Star Society Starry - in shops again later this year! - including mine:)

Sunnyside by Camille for Moda - If you like her Nantucket line then you will love the blues and greens in this line! You can find bundles of this color way on Etsy here.

Also Sunnyside using more of the prints.

Fabric is Main Street by Sweetwater

Fabric is Besties by Tula Pink - shipping to shops in October

DIAMOND LANTERNS ON THE BLOG

PATTERNS IN THE SHOP

OVER ON INSTAGRAM

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